Jeff and Amy

We are medical missionaries with SIM (Serving in Mission) working to plant churches in rural Paraguay. God has blessed us with 8 children, a peaceful town to live in, precious friends (both Paraguayan and team mates), fulfillment in our ministry and a beautiful culture to explore. He truly has given us more that we could ever have asked or imagined.

Ryan is 16 and starting his Senior year

He is smart, outgoing, and loves the Lord. He loves games (sports and board) and spending time with friends.

Ginny is 14 years old.

She loves taking care of animals, being outdoors, collecting "treasures", drawing and crafting.

Joshua is 13 years old.

Joshua loves doing experiements (from science to cooking), U.S. President trivia and listening to Adventures in Odyssey.

Tyler is 12 years old.

Tyler has a contagious smile and hearty laugh. He loves soccer, sword fights and his daddy.

Micah is 10 years old.

Micah is active and mischievous. He loves running outside and playing with LEGOs.

Julia is 6 years old.

Julia loves music and singing songs with made up lyrics. She loves animals (like her big sister) and rough housing with her brothers.

Josiah is 3 years old

This guy is a character! He dumps everything out, knocks everything down, colors on walls, rips books, jumps on beds and falls off of beds, gives tight hugs and wet kisses, and loves to give fist bump.

CLAIRE JOY turned one December 29th.

This little girl gets so much attention! There are always arms to hold her, someone to entertain her and always an extra hand around to help. Claire is a beautiful, content and joyous little girl.

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Saturday, December 20, 2008

A Season For Everything

Suture StoriesLast year, for about 6 months, Jeff sewed countless arms and legs (mostly men) and then he didn’t have another deep laceration case for several months…until now. We realize that machete and shovel wounds are more likely to take place in the spring and summer when people are clearing their field.

Our neighbor was gorged in the testicles by a cow. He was very blessed because his skin/sack was split a few inches but his “jewels” weren’t even touched! Ryan who has just finished reading Old Yeller said, “Maybe the cow had rabies.” Ginny said, “I hope it wasn’t Friend Cow.” Friend Cow is a cow that comes by the house every day around 5:00 to eat from our scraps bucket.

A lady needed stitches on her hand. Her boyfriend had gotten angry and stabbed her in the hand with scissors.

A three year old had half his big toe cut off by a shovel. The flesh and nail were gone and the bone was sticking out. The parents had wrapped a burnt towel around the toe. Jeff had to numb the toe in order to pick the towel pieces out and clean the toe. The poor kid howled the entire time. Jeff advised them to go to Caazapá and see a surgeon who might be able to do a skin graft. They did not go.

SnakesIt is also the season for snakes as the men clear their land. At the beginning of the week, a man waited patiently to see Jeff. Finally at 5:00 it was his turn. He had been bitten by a snake. He killed it and brought it for us to see. It was black and about 4 feet long. Gross! Jeff’s Boy Scout days paid off because he was able to recognize it as non-poisonous, plus the man wasn’t having any symptoms of a reaction. The man just wanted to be sure because last year he was bitten by a poisonous snake and spent a week in the hospital. That same week Jeff had two others come with snake bites which got Jeff thinking that he needed to bone up on his venomous snake knowledge. Word got out that he was collecting (dead) snakes to compose a photo file. A teacher at the school brought a poisonous 2 feet long mboi chumbe (coral snake). In North America the “red and yellow (touching stripes), kill a fellow” and “red and black, venom lack” would apply but not for South American snacks.

A lady came who lives 30 minutes from us had been bitten on the thigh by a venomous snake. Jeff immediately sent someone to find her a ride to Caazapa (45 minutes away) because we don’t have any anti-venom here. The site was already read and swollen and the lady was vomiting and turning pale. We heard yesterday that she was ok and had to spend two days in the hospital. The anti-venom is expensive but it saved her life!

On The RoadJust as we sat down to eat Ginny’s birthday dinner, a truck drove up followed by many spectators. A drunk policeman in uniform was going too fast on his motorcycle and had a one man crash. His face was pretty torn up, missing teeth, swollen eye, etc. Jeff thought he had a couple facial fractures and sent him to Caazapa.

Jeff saw an 8 year old boy who was just ran over by a tractor trailer. He was alive but had a huge hematoma over his right lower abdomen/ hip / femur and is urinating blood. Jeff quickly sent him away to the nearest surgeon (traveling on motorcycle with 3 people will take 1 1/2 hours).

PRAYER REQUESTS UPDATED 8/7/16

Pray for Cesar and Marisa to have a thriving marriage. PRay as they lead the Bible study in San Isidro on Saturday afternoons. There is a young mother, 16 years old, who is asking all the right questions about salvation.

For Jeff:

PRaise that his paperwork was renewed to practice medicine for another 6 months. CLinics are very busy this time of year with 15-20 patients each morning.

For Amy:

Pray for a healthy pregnancy and for patience and wisdom in homeschooling.

For the kids:

Pray for the kids that they would have a great homeschool year and continue to grow in their relationship with Christ.

For our teammates:

Pray for our SIM team mates whom we love and respect. These incredible missionaries have such a heart to reach Paraguay (and the world) for Christ. Pray for their financial support , safety while traveling, and that they will be a light in a dark world. Pray for the Bakers and the Howells as they look for housing in and around Jataity over the next few months. Praise God for a growing church planting team!

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